I have to admit: procedural television is not always my favorite thing. But this year NBC’s The Blacklist exploded onto the scene, and I knew I would be well-served to jump in. So I made it my mission during the winter holidays and caught up with the series in order to see if I could be converted to the land of procedural lovers. Turns out? The Blacklist is pretty, pretty good and far more entertaining than most other crime dramas and procedurals out there.

Psychological thrillers are common to television, but NBC’s new drama The Blacklist has a secret weapon in James Spader. The man spent the last year at the network playing manipulative boss Robert California on The Office, but he’s done the dramatic thing more than once in the past and he’s perfect for the role in The Blacklist. Or perhaps, rather the role is perfect for him.

Names involved with each of the above shows will be in attendence, including Spader, but also Megan Boone, Hugh Dancy, David Giuntoli, Silas Weir Mitchell, and a star-studded Community panel featuring Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie, Ken Jeong, and Dan Harmon, who recently returned to the series as showrunner. SNL and soon-to-be late night host Seth Meyers is also set to appear at the Hulu panel

The above trailer appears to give a way a lot about the pilot episode of this new NBC series, which has secured itself a choice spot on NBC's 2013-2014 schedule. It's set to air Monday nights after The Voice, beginning this fall, taking over Revolution's old timeslot.

Among the more promising sounding dramas in the works this pilot season is Jon Bokenkamp's The Blacklist. The project was announced earlier this year, and since then, we've been left to wonder who would play the lead role of the criminal mastermind who shows of at the FBI and offers to give up information on everyone he's ever worked with. James Spader has been cast in the lead for the project.

The guest role that turned into a season-long recurring gig for James Spader is coming to an end. Spader is giving up his desk on The Office and won’t be back for the ninth season – which actually hasn’t been officially ordered yet. With several other stars considering new projects, it looks like there could be a pretty big cast shake-up.

“He creeps me out,” Jim Halpert has said of James Spader’s Robert California. “But I think he might be a genius.” Based on what we’ve seen of Spader in The Office already, I’m inclined to agree with Jim. If your memory’s rusty on Spader’s guest-spot, NBC has offered two promos for the new season both of which focus on Robert California.

Despite the whole Wonder Woman fiasco -- although it still hopes to find life on another network...any network -- David E. Kelley still makes successful television shows. The man behind Ally McBeal and Boston Legal seems to find his greatest success in the courtroom, so it's no surprise that his Harry's Law made the jump to a second season, and they just lined up a great guest star for the first three episodes.

Spader, who was among a number of potential replacements for Michael Scott's former position to appear in last season's finale, will be replacing Kathy Bates as the CEO of Dunder Mifflin's parent company, Sabre. According to Office executive producer and series regular Paul Lieberstein, Spader's character, Robert California, was actually hired into the manager position but was able to rise all the way to the position of CEO within a matter of days -- where he'll be for the comedy's eighth season.

The Office wound up its recent season with the departure of Steve Carell's Michael Scott and a parade of celebrity guest stars as his potential replacements, including Will Ferrell, Ray Romano, and Will Arnett. Now Spader is in talks to join The Office next fall, but not as the new head of the Scranton branch. Instead, Spader's character would take over as the new CEO of Dunder Mifflin.

NBC's tentpole The Office saw a serious drop in the numbers last week when they aired the first Michael Scott-less episode, and even the presence of interim manager Deangelo Vickers, aka Will Ferrell, couldn't do much to slow the slide. But for this week's season finale they've brought in loads of big-name cameos to curb the drop.